- Some words in the English language are difficult to spell because they donât follow any spelling rules or they have silent letters.
- There are tools that you can use to improve your spelling.
- Tools to help you remember spellings could include mnemonics, acrostics, words within words and sounding it out.
Over the last thousand years English spelling has been influenced by lots of different languages, including French, German and Latin. Because English has borrowed words from other languages, lots of complex spelling patterns have developed.
There are many different reasons a word can be tricky to spell. For example:
- They have silent letters, like the letter âbâ in the word âsubtleâ.
- They have double letters that you also cannot hear, for example, in the words âdisappointâ and âaccommodationâ.
- They donât follow a pattern or spelling rule, for example, the word âancientâ does not follow the rule - âi before e except after câ.
Homophones are words that have the same sound, but a different spelling and meaning. These words might lead you to use the wrong spelling in your writing. For example, many writers confuse the words âyourâ and âyouâreâ.
What tools can you use to remember tricky spellings?
Mnemonic
A mnemonic is a tool that helps you to memorise something specific, like how to spell a word.
For example, the following is a mnemonic for the word ânecessaryâ - âone collar and two sleevesâ. This mnemonic could help you remember that the word ânecessaryâ has one âcâ and two âsâsâ, which enables you to remember the tricky parts of this spelling.
Mnemonics can also be used to remember tricky homophone spellings. For example, âtheirâ is a possessive word - it has the word âheirâ in it - which is someone who may inherit lots of possessions.
Acrostic
You can also use an acrostic - a phrase you create from the letters that make up a difficult word.
For example, for the word ârhythmâ take the letters âR - H - Y - T - H - Mâ and make the phrase âRhythm Helps Your Two Hips Moveâ with each word of the phrase beginning with the letters which spell the word ârhythmâ.
Words within words
It can also be useful to remember shorter words within the tricky spelling.
For example, the word âbraâ in library is a memorable way to remember the tricky part of this spelling.
Itâs also useful to remember that the word âindependentâ has the following smaller words inside it - âdependâ, âdependentâ, âdentâ.
The word âconscienceâ can be tricky to spell. However, if you remember to always include the word âscienceâ, it becomes easier to remember the correct spelling.
Sounding it out
It can be helpful to sound out the tricky parts of a word, for example âWed - NES - dayâ or âFeb-RU-aryâ. The word isnât usually said like this, but giving emphasis to the sound can help it stick in your memory.
Final tips
- Put aside time to work on difficult spellings.
- Create a list of your own personal tricky spellings.
- Invent your own tricks for remembering these words.
- Test yourself to check your progress.
- Come back to the lists regularly to check your long-term memory.
Activity
Quiz
Find out how much you know about tricky spellings in this short quiz!
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